`

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Zaid: Najib not qualified to talk about the truth

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak is the last person who should be speaking about the truth, said former federal minister Zaid Ibrahim in a posting on his blog.

"He calls on Muslims to have the skills and be capable of ascertaining the truth, but how are those Muslims able to tell what is true when he uses the Official Secrets Act, the police, the attorney-general, investigating agencies, Parliament and whatever else at his disposal to cover up the truth?" asked Zaid.

Zaid said this in reference to Najib's speech at the International Wasatiyyah Seminar 2016, on the theme of “Fiqh Tabayyun: Facing Social Media Challenges and Defamation", yesterday.

Najib had said that all must have the ability to check the truth of all information, which is the principle of 'fiqh tabayyun', before believing any news that they hear, or else slander and defamatory news will run rampant.

"Our prime minister, however, does not even want the facts to be known. He talks of slander and ‘fitnah’ and yet he and his friends in PAS will not sue Sarawak Report.

"He has decided to use taxpayers’ money on this conference because he wants to give the impression that he is interested in the truth, but the fact of the matter is that Najib is afraid of the truth," Zaid wrote.

He likened Najib to controversial US presidential candidate Donald Trump, saying both had their own ideas about truth and falsehood which differed from most people's, and neither cared what the rest of the world thought of them.

"Fortunately for us, Najib will not be in office in a year’s time and Trump won’t even get near the White House," Zaid added.

He said Najib's propensity to use Islamic concepts and Arabic words, which he believed the prime minister neither understood nor believed in, was done to seek votes from the Malays. - Mkini